Sony shares have fallen by 13 per cent — which equates to roughly $20 billion — since Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Call of Duty publisher Activision for $68 billion. The sharp drop in market value represents Sony's biggest loss since October 2008, removing $20 billion from the company's value in just one day. However, stock value is expected to recover in due course.
Of course, this is simply how the stock market reacts to such major news. It always has done and it likely always will. Interestingly, Microsoft's stock value also took a slight hit yesterday. It is, after all, intending on spending $69 billion and the news has negatively impacted its value too.
Microsoft bought Activision at $95 per share, which when is totalled to $68 billion, means the company paid around 45 per cent above Activision's stock price prior to the announcements.
There was positive news for other major publishers, however. Shares at Square Enix, Capcom, and Konami all rose by five per cent while Ubisoft went up by 11 per cent. Perhaps shareholders see the companies as the next potential targets for a takeover. The deal is expected to close at some point next year, but we believe it already spells bad news for PS5 and PS4.
[source bloomberg.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 186
Now is definitely the time for smart investors to buy some relatively "cheap" stock. This will bounce back before too long.
Edit: Regarding the Activision take over being bad news for PlayStation, after letting the news settle overnight I'm getting a little excited to see what happens next.
Sony won't be market leader for much longer, most likely, but that forces them to be more competitive, which ultimately will benefit us.
This take over sucks regarding the precedent it sets for the future of the industry, but I don't play anything by Activision, and if it means Sony will be even nicer to us now to keep people on their platform, then great.
Sony, if you're listening, I'll take Crunchyroll/Funimation with my Spartacus sub please.
No one can stop Microsoft. I can't predict where Microsoft will take over next time.
All that stock dropped over a half baked rehashed shooter that's hasn't been improved since the ps3 days
Divide and conquer
@dasd2 most prob ubisoft , ubisoft + comes to Xbox this year and I can honestly see them buying ubi and making + part of gamepass
The market Cap is still about $40 Billion more than it was in May 2021. All within normal short term fluctuations and overreactions.
Once the chip shortages eases and Sony releases the financials the value will probably jump another $50 Billion.
@UltimateOtaku91 Quality is irrelevant and so is downplaying this, is still the 1# best selling game every year for Sony's consoles and I can imagine how much revenue they get on all the COD dlc alone.
But like someone above said I'm excited to see how Sony responds to this which I'm sure they will, they aren't exactly broke so they could make a couple of moves and probably are behind the scenes.
@ChrisDeku 100% right. [EDIT] The industries general reporting of this is sensationalist journalism. The stock was lower on Xmas eve (3 weeks ago) and even lower still in October, August and May and Feb of last year. Obviously if it tumbles again today when trading opens that's another story. But it isn't anywhere near as bad as this or other articles make out. More fearmongering.
Its strange seeing people excited for Sonys reponse to this because...they literally dont have an answer for this. This will only escalate further
@lolwhatno If it had been against the wishes of Activision's management it would be considered hostile. But they are happy to sell.
It's a very aggressive move against competitors, but it wouldn't be considered a hostile takeover.
Sony needs to buy Ubisoft like now. Farcry, Assassin Creed, For Honor, Watchdogs etc. If an when Microsoft buys Ubisoft then its over.
@IonMagi People thought Nintendo would die in the face of Sony & Microsoft. Look at them now. You have to play smart and play a different game if you can't play on the same terms. That's potentially exciting.
@UltimateOtaku91 and still tens of millions buy it each year
@IonMagi they can't have an answer, and sony's buying square enix for example is far worse than microsoft buying it since it would mean no more SE games on pc
@Snick27 EA would be more reasonable and have a far bugger impact
@themightyant Lol, you literally cant compete with infinite Money. In comparsion to Sony Nintendo can survive solely with their First Party IPs so all they needed was another successful Console. Sony depends on 3rd Party Games selling on their Platform so they will go down if MS buys more Publishers. Microsoft Endgame is to push Sony out of the Gaming Market by starving them of 3rd Party Games
@Martsmall they can't 'just' put ubisoft+ on gamepass, that costs 100$ a year it would be a new tier on gamepass since it includes all ubisoft games + its dlcs day one
@Alduin Sony's timed exclusives still come to xbox which I believe started this with making tomb raider timed exclusive and Pubg and Stalker 2, then bought Bethesda to make their games exclusive full stop, so sony's timed exclusives are nothing compared to what Microsoft are doing to the gaming industry.
Also Microsoft could out bid sony on any purchase so where do you draw the line to "its just business" and becomes a hostile takeover of the gaming industry. Even if sony put bids in for square enix or sega etc Microsoft would find out and outbid them, that's the bully they have become and gaming will only go downhill from here on out
God gaming has been depressing these past few days.
@OthmaneAD Sony is releasing their Games on PC even earlier nowadays so for PC Gamers nothing would change
@themightyant I mention in both the headline and body of text that the stock value is likely going to recover and this is normal to the stock market. Can you explain how my article makes it out to be a terrible thing?
@UltimateOtaku91 MS started this waaay earlier during the PS3/X360 Era. Tons of Games were X360 only for a certain amount of time
@OthmaneAD I reckon if Sony bought SE their games would definitely still end up on PC. My concern would be Dragon Quest not being on Switch.
Edit: Considering how massive Dragon Quest is on Nintendo in Japan, I could nearly see Sony letting it stay there if ever any of this did come to pass.
@themightyant sony rivalled Nintendo in terms of tech and having a better machine, not by buying the biggest third party devs that make some of the biggest games on nintendo
@UltimateOtaku91 can you blame the stock prices when you yourself seemed pretty upset over a 'half baked rehashed shooter' lmao
@Shepherd_Tallon you're right, time for microsoft to step in /s
@IonMagi exactly but xbots soon seem to forget that fact and make out sony are the bad guys whilst they wear their rose tinted glasses. If I remember they had takes of vesperia, blue dragon, eternal sonata, last odyssey all paid timed/full exclusives
@OthmaneAD but with Ubisoft + on Xbox being owned by Sony would be interesting.
What I've learnt is that MS can do no wrong and Sony are the bad guys simply for making great AAA SP games that attracted millions to the PS4.
"Deadman walking"
@IonMagi This is why I dont believe Sony will produce a PS6.
MicroTencent.
Slowly creating the scenario of; 'Sony Vs The Entire Gaming industry'
Because.. they kicked our butts for three generations running.
Sony are notoriously quiet and at the worst possible times. They really need to make some announcements next month and not just a HFW State of Play.
If PlayStation goes the way of the dodo I'm not sure that's good news for all gamers, irrespective of their preferred platform. Not sure why Xbots are gloating, will just mean their subscriptions go up and up and up.
@OthmaneAD did I say for free at all ? Nope
But they buy studios and put Thier day one games out on gp so no reason they couldn't do the same with ubisoft they still make money off sales of the games elsewhere like pc and ps
And if you think about it game pass costs approx £120 a year ? Yet there are ways to get game pass approx £70 for 3 years
Remember when Spider-Man was a PlayStation exclusive in Marvel's Avengers?
@Col_McCafferty
Guaranteed when Sony gets yet another timed exclusive that will appear everywhere in due time everyone will call them the most anti-consumer company in the world while conveniently forgetting that Microsoft are deliberately leaving out two platforms who won't conform to their 'vision'.
And yet they are the inclusive, pro-consumer ones apparently. 🤷♂️
Like you said, they can do no wrong because everyone has been blinded by GamePass.
No ownership, always online, no lending DRM. sound familiar? How can people be so blind?
And when the price inevitably increases will people still feel the same for not voting with their wallets?
Paying forever for access as opposed to a one off fee to play at your own leisure?
A little ironic that The Outer Worlds IP is owned by Microsoft...
On a more sober, somber note, I still haven't gotten over the Obsidian buyout. I dont have a PC capable of running new releases, and I dont want to buy an Xbox as the mentality of the PS community since 4 has been one of diversity in audience and genre, meanwhile Xbox has been very bro-y for generations, both with their first party titles and their fans. PS4 era acknowledged girl gamers, gave us heroines with moxie. Also... I've had a PS since 1. Since I was like 6. I'm at home here.
I'm just saddened because Xbox is clearly counting on people like me with deep love for developers jumping ship, platform wise, because I would have to. If this is revenge, this is petty. This just shows the difference between a great game publisher and one who has no vision, only eyes for the dollar signs.
Sony will bounce back, but at what cost to all gamers?
If Sony devalues even more they might fall victim to a hostile Takeover. Apple and Disney are already rubbing their hands probably
I’m out. I bought a load of new pc components to upgrade my pc today.
I no longer want to partake in these exclusivity wars and I have determined the best path for me now is to buy all games on PC and PS can be used solely for PlayStation exclusives from now on.
Microsoft is being very anti consumer and as someone who likes to have all their gaming in one platform like me, it’s a pain in the bum, which is why I’m making the move.
Yes it will be more expensive in the long run due to upgrading components etc every few years, but the games are cheaper on day one and it should be less susceptible to all these acquisitions unless someone with enough financial clout takes on MS like apple deciding to take on the gaming world.
Good luck all and hope things work out for all of you.
and Phil took that personally.
Apple to buy Sony, I can think of worse takeovers!
@GADG3Tx87 I'm baffled by the gloating and celebration that's taking place on other sites, it's almost as if they want PS to end.
At no point have I hoped that Xbox or Nintendo leave the gaming scene. They do their thing and Sony do what they do best. It does feel as if SP games are at peril here especially big blockbusters that aren't online or stuffed full of MTXs.
@IonMagi this is completely normal after things like what happened with Activision. Sony isn’t dropping because the company is doing badly. It’s investor fear that caused the drop. Once their bellies settle the stock will go right back up.
@UltimateOtaku91 I still remember them giving JP Devs free Development Kits so they could have timed exclusivity for Games like Star Ocean 5, Eternal Sonata, Idol Master and more
@Scarla88 An odd choice in my eyes, you could buy a PS5, an Xbox Series X and a game pass sub for less than a decent PC (stock issues not withstanding)...
@LiamCroft Mea Culpa, I wasn't clear. I wasn't talking about your article in particular but the industry reacting to the news in general, I didn't make that clear, will edit for clarity.
Your article is clearer than most that it will likely bounce back, though that's not guaranteed. Eurogamer and many others don't mention it at all.
When an event this seismic happens there is naturally going to be some changes in stock but usually this balances pretty quickly. Most sites ONLY using the headline of "Sony drops 20%", or "...most in 14 years" while accurate is also sensationalist. This drop is entirely normal and expected after such a big announcement from a competitor, that sort of reporting just adds to all the current fearmongering going on.
@AhmadSumadi Problem is, as I said, Investors want a Reaction and Answer to the impending Problems and Sony doesnt have them bc they cannot compete. Ergo the price of shares will drop even more
@GADG3Tx87 this is the way now look at movies (netflix/Amazon/Disney + and more ) and I don't mind it with both games and movies I dont need to own movies apart form the select few I love ( same with games ) and will watch time and time again , and as for the price going up everyone said this after the Bethesda buyout and it still hasn't ,it might go up in the future but that's life ,if u live in the UK buy a Cadbury chocolate bar that's 2 thirds of the size it used to be for more money , and to be honest if it does go up it's still great value for what it is eg this month alone they will b adding hitman trilogy and death's door just to name 2 among others ,go price just them 2 games up on the ps store and see what the saving is , from a consumer financially it makes sense it's money saved especially for ppl like me who play the games get all the trophies and achievements and prob won't play again till dlc
Microsoft are taking a risk too, with this all in approach to gamepass. It'd be impossible for them to backtrack and return to business as usual now, the Xbox brand is so closely associated with it that they'd have to rebrand altogether.
They need gamepass to be profitable, or at least have forecasts of being profitable in the future. Honestly this huge acquisition kind of shows signs of desperation from them too.
@Col_McCafferty Some Americans hate getting their ass handed to them by another country and they love making a comeback with money.
Xbox is like Batman. Biggest superpower: Money.
Sony ain't going anywhere. I just think xbox will reach 100 million sales and be neck on neck with ps5.
@nitram2k11 I already have a PS5 and series X.
I just don’t like having to use multiple platforms, I’d rather have 90% all in one place and with the way things are going, the safest place for someone like me is PC.
this will become an interesting situation... everyone is thinking about the market power of XBox/MS which is clearly there, and is clear that Sony will take a hit if Call of Duty is out of their environment.
On the other hand, Activision games if they become XBox only will likely earn less money, which then makes Activision a less valuable asset, plus if they become GamePass games as they most surely will, we can consider that the earnings of your yearly CoD game will be much much less than it is now, making it a depretiated asset.
MS game is to starve Sony to death while dealing with huge losses, but if PlayStation survives as a brand for long enough, XBox could be the one finding itself in trouble
@Col_McCafferty
That's because they do. Apparently, PlayStation fanboys are toxic and Xbox fanboys are not according to them. But did you see all the toxic comments on PureXbox yesterday? Unbelievable.
Third parties are necessary, without them we all lose but Microsoft are intent to gobble them all up for maximum profit and change gaming to be a (more) soulless corporate cess Pitt.
Phil Spencer: "exclusives are anti-consumer, when we all play, we all win".
Also Phil Spencer: "no, no, you can't have that, but we want yours".
And he'll make some PR speech next time Sony gets a game to make them look bad and goad them to his ideology, he's a damn puppet master.
@Martsmall
Of course the price hasn't increased. Yet. Until they get the mass numbers they want. The company that tried to get away with doubling the price of XBLG? You think they are your friends? They did that to try and force people to GP and they won't keep the price low forever. You don't make back 70bn overnight. With their current numbers it would take 10 years of continuous subscribers to get that back at full price. They confirmed yesterday GP subscribers sit at 25m. Four years after it launched, available on four platforms at present.
And some of us don't want services, yet MS will force us kicking and screaming. Slowly damaging what didn't need to change. Netflix is in massive debt of 3bn with over 8x more subscribers than MS and can't make a profit when movies are more accessed than games and cheaper to produce.
Inevitably, games will have to become MTX mediocre rubbish in order to churn them out quickly for profit in the future.
Gaming will, eventually, never be the same again. I'm sure of it. imo.
@Alduin I don't think this has anything to do with Sony's timed exclusives! You don't spend 70 billion to combat that, you would just do the same and spend shed loads less.
This is MS really showing what it's true long term plan is, to buy as many studios/publishers as they can! To have the biggest collection of games anywhere, to make it the only place you can play your favourite games. They are looking 20-30 years ahead. I wouldn't be surprised if ubisoft is next.
@GADG3Tx87 I never mentioned that they are my friends not are sony yours it's business and from a business point of view they prob will increase the price but if they go too high ppl won't pay it simple as, for the gold price Increase they soon backed down on it , As for forcing to be part of game pass u know you can still buy the games without having game pass right ? You have a choice your not being forced to get game pass ( although if you do you will save 10% on buying the games so still money saved depending on how many games you buy )!
@UltimateOtaku91 - MS paid to create Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey in the exact same way that Sony paid FromSoft for Bloodborne and Demon's Souls. There's no difference.
@Martsmall
You think it'll be that way forever? Highly doubtful. It's a slow transition to control everything under a subscription. And I never said Sony were my friends either.
As for people not paying it, what choice will they have when everything else is gone because MS bought practically the whole industry? It'll happen. And it's when I'll stop gaming. Glad I collected a massive library to go back to while everyone else will enter the next dark age of gaming. Just like the pre 90's crash.
What kind of idiot think this is because of Sony times exclusives? Time exclusivity is done by all companies. All Xbox fanboys use this as an excuse which is ridiculous. Most of Sony exclusives are either first party or collaborate closely with third party developers. Most timed exclusives are DLC with only a few big games. Almost all the great games throughout last gen are first party. How come it is Sony’s fault most Xbox exclusives last gen didn’t do well? Currently Xbox first party day 1 exclusives are very few and far between (no exclusives until now after ill fated crackdown 3). With more exclusives coming, expect subscription fee go up. And people will then subscribe using other regions. We will see how this will affect games in the long run. Will consoles games model turn into mobile model, low initial cost with tons of in games purchases?
@Col_McCafferty Not only can they do no wrong, they're also the underdog (with trillions of dollars)
@Shigurui facts don’t matter to some people.
Sony will bounce back, no need to panic.
@GADG3Tx87 if they ever did force ppl to just buy game pass and not buy games they are done as a company so no they won't do it , mostly everyone would just move to Sony /Nintendo/pc , and yes they made mistakes in the past just like Sony have but they backtracked ,the whole no second hand game thing that never happened at all cause they backtracked.
Microsoft like every other company is in it to make money and if losing that money is a threat they soon backtrack
Me for example ( and there are alot like me ) I have game pass till december 2024 and I still buy games my library as of today stands at 551 ( Xbox ) without gamepass/gold games/ea play ,it's not ruining the Industry I actually buy more because of game pass, some games I wouldn't have bought but played on GP and enjoyed so now a fan and even if they don't release the next game on game pass. I will buy them , big and small companies have publicly said that game pass is gd for them ( like se) ,the companies get paid for it it's not like they are giving away Thier games for free ,they also have a choice but it's in Thier interest. The more money these companies make from go or any other service the more games they can afford to produce
This is the time for Microsoft to buy Sony and cancel the activision deal. A genius business move.
Unlike paying 68billion for activision…
I wonder if this will make Sony reveal Spartacus quicker.
@Martsmall
Again. How would you stop them when competition no longer exists? If they stay on this track and end up buying out all the competition they can make the rules as they see fit. In the end you won't need a console, why bother to produce it when all you'll need is a TV, and App and a controller? Guess what, no downloads, streaming only, just like everything else. Bye-bye options. You know that will happen with them investing heavily in cloud computing, it's inevitable.
@UltimateOtaku91 quality =/= sales
The mouse will swoop in for the Sony purchase, for that sweet sweet spider-man cash cow. With the success of the latest film, and the insomniac games that sold millions and millions, plus the wolverine game (presumably more down the line) not forgetting the venom property as well as mobius and any other spidery property they got going on. Gives Disney the perfect gateway to the gaming industry they left previously.
I think people are getting carried away with the narrative of Microsoft destroying all of gaming or causing the extinction of AAA SP titles. This move is unprecedented for sure, and is a massive blow to Sony who I hope takes the idea that they need an in-house FPS title more seriously now, but this also leads to Sony innovating and hopefully getting some more variety in their first party line-up as well.
The biggest hopes I have are a serious clean up at Activision Blizzard followed by that variety of teams just…making cool games that aren’t CoD and not dealing with a frat bro culture.
And on the topic of Gamepass being anti-consumer…I’d have loved to have a service like this as a kid extremely limited by what I could play. We’ll wait to see if prices go up but right now it all just strikes me as paranoia and brand loyalty.
@Snake_V5 I wonder if this will make Naughty Dog reveal their multiplayer quicker.
@GADG3Tx87 but streaming is the way it is going and it's not Microsoft's fault ,it's the way of life eg netflix ( lovefilm ) used to post out DVDs then stopped it and went fully online , it's progress whether u like it or not things change for some it might b bad for some it might b good that's life , I'm pretty sure most of the ppl who used to have netflix thank god they no longer have to wait for royal mail to deliver Thier films lol and some with rubbish net connections would say diffrent ,you can't please everyone , sometimes there are ppl that don't like it like me who's annoyed there isn't a Tim Hortons where I live grrrrr lol
Even Sony came out with ps now before microsoft got game pass but I don't see you blaming them for streaming options why is it just Microsoft you blame ?
Edit : sorry have to add about the just a TV,app and controller part that's Google stadia and Amazon firestick as well so it's not microsofts fault it's not like they started it
@nookie_egg Lol you realize that Disney technically owns Spider-Man and all those characters right? They'd be buying Sony just for the movie/television rights back. They licensed both Spider-Man & Wolverine out for those games to Sony.... it's why they've made sure to include "Marvel's" in front of all recent games.
I wonder if Sony has anything to combat the spending that Microsoft has been doing as of late? They need something big... not $70 billion big but I think it's time for them to tip their hand and reveal a couple big games they've kept secret for PS5 so far. The secrecy Sony has gone with for the PS5 gen is annoying at best... but coupled with the lack of hardware to buy, Microsoft is showing they are the platform to buy this gen if you don't already have a PS5.
Time to Buy more stock
@GalacticBreakdown Yes I do. I also know that the most recent film alone has made over a billion that they've had to share with Sony. Presumably Sony paid x amount for the games exclusivity as well, which again means profits would have been shared. Spidey is literally the biggest superhero in the world atm (more than superman and batman) and the potential for stuff from that ip alone is huge
Not forgetting that psn made more than the xbox and Nintendo divisions (combined possibly?). So why not just purchase the whole company and take all the profits instead of sharing.
@Martsmall
Because unlike Microsoft Sony are not buying up massive publishers and attempting to force the industry into their 'vision'. Not that I agree with it either way.
And you've just agreed to everything I've already said by stating that 'it's the future'. So, basically, Microsoft are anti-competitive and anti-consumer for slowly buying up and changing an industry that didn't need to change so drastically in order to force people towards services even if they don't want it.
We're going around in circles here so I won't bother with you anymore. Respectively, PureXbox is that way. 👉
@lolwhatno No worries! You're a solid sort.
This is definitely going to get the Japanese giant to invest even more into gaming this generation to keep up with what Microsoft is continuing to do. Sony has been in the game for a while don’t believe for a second this is anywhere near the end for them.
Sony needs to go back in on weird stuff. Like Puppeteer and Gravity Rush. And also do a sleek, new Killzone.
@Alduin Yeah, I can imagine Microsoft not wanting to dominate a billions making industry because a competitor decided to NOT make timed exclusives. It is sooooo relevant.
Why you all have decided that that CoD is leaving PlayStation? Microsoft is not going to recoup $70Bn by leaving the most profitable store for the franchise just to spite a competitor.
@GADG3Tx87 I haven't agreed to anything u said ,it's more like u know I'm right it's just u wanna blame Microsoft for the future direction every other company is moving to . Ur bs all its streaming and it's Microsoft's fault but Sony stream Thier old games to make money money it's a gd thing right ? I do play Xbox more than ps but business is business for either company they all want to make money ,Oh and btw on game pass u can download or stream how's that for a CHOICE ? If Sony bring out all Thier games with spartucas with streaming option u going to blame them for ruining the world too ? Are you hell ,And do you think Sony wouldn't have gotten Activision if it could afford it ? I reckon they also were offered it like other companies and declined
And for me being a Xbox fanboy if Sony do stream every game they can ,from me it's gd for them if they can make money from it gd im happy with that,l and if they do streaming to all diffrent devices I really hope they do the carry on playing on another device from where you left off, I hope they go for it and that goes for buying other companies
@Shepherd_Tallon That is a positive way to look at it, with Sony being backed into a corner they will have no choice but to be more friendly towards consumers, which definitely is a good thing. I like the idea of PlayStation becoming more of a unique ecosystem without the Activision games being a focus of players as this could give Sony more of its own unique identity.
@Martsmall
You say I'm putting all the blame on MS and yet you're trying to cast blame on Sony who are not at fault in this instance, and re-read your comment, you did agree with me by saying 'streaming is the future' and that future as I said will change and destroy traditional gaming.
BTW, you can both download and stream in PSNow too. And did you miss the part where I said I don't like that either? You're cherry picking my comments to suit your brand loyalty, and in our comments you're the one who brought Sony in to this, not me.
Again, you're not seeing the point to any of this down the line. MS are being anti-consumer by buying up huge third parties and taking them away from other platforms who don't conform to their vision and that is undeniable. You want to ignore that and be an MS apologist be my guest, it doesn't change what they are doing.
Bye-bye.
So I want to post here, and the common misconceptions I am seeing that are being talked about in these comments. This whole buying of studios has nothing to do with console wars (MS doesn't give a ***** if you buy a console or not), pushing Sony out, or trying to keep everything from gamers, this decision for acquisition was moreso to save Activision Blizzard from its losses and issues internally and management style. If you reflect back on the history of all the studios MS has acquired for Xbox Games Studios you will see most of those companies were having financial issues, loss issues and damaged brands that have actually been revived as of recently. As much as I agree about companies buying other companies is bad for gaming, I see this one as a boon, and considering what gamers on the Activision and Blizzard sides are saying, they welcome their Microsoft overlords because it means changes will be made to the studio cultures, no more Bobby kotick when the deal is done, Blizzard will be able to work on its own games again the way it used to, and Activision and others can work on other respective games with the MS backing to up the quality and cash injection most of these franchises need, CoD won't be a yearly release and focus on the quality of content, not the quantity.
@Col_McCafferty We are living in a parody version of earth indeed. But for what it's worth, it's a transitory realm. Nobody lives forever and nobody gets to keep material success and wealth past the point at which they take there last breath.
@Dpishere I've had this thought too.
For all of MS's talk of how we should be able to play all games everywhere, at a glance it almost seems that what they're doing is unintentionally setting the console platforms apart with regard to the types of games that can be played on them.
@Dweich02 Remove Bobby Kotick by buying his company. Gateway an increasingly large part of an entire industry. I think proportionately speaking, that is not the right call for humanity at large.
@Shepherd_Tallon Its called Doublespeak 😂
@Shephard_Tallon when they mean play games anywhere, they mean where the platform for their stuff is accepted, if Sony didn't want to be part of handshaking that's their own issue, but in terms of gaming market for consumers, they offer their games and services where available and where they can make sure players can get good value for the money they spend in that space.
@KayOL77 as much as it sucks, Activision Blizzard was spiraling out of control and hurting its own fans and gamers within its franchises, if this was a call for proper oversight and work culture and to make sure those studios go back to making better games, let it happen.
@KayOL77 "We don't want to pull games away from our rivals" while pulling games away from their rivals. I think it's time somebody started collecting all the doublespeak stuff about Phil now we know his true colours. Remember he said delaying halo was the right move to finish it while ommiting most of the features? Nobody batted an eyelid. The hypocrisy is stunning to see.
@Dweich02 So the ONLY way to remove Kotick was for the biggest most aggressive company to buy and gatekeep the content? That's like scientists recommending the earth be set on a course to collide with the sun because if they don't an asteroid coming the other way will kill loads of people.
@Dweich02 Not to mention the teams themselves at Activision-Blizzard and the horrors they faced. If this changes that culture then it’s a positive in my book, regardless of how this affects PS gamers. The people that make these games deserve respect and peace of mind, which if nothing else MS seems committed to with the teams they already have.
@KayOL77 have you been living under a rock for the past few decades of people wanting Bobby out and him not budging?
@KayOL77 I would say to please go and read the fine print before speaking, there was an officially posted article about the future ensuring they won't take away what's already on PS.
@Dweich02 I agree, but they have also talked in the past about how exclusives aren't good for the industry. That's what I'm referring
Apologies though, I didn't make that quite clear.
@Shepherd_Tallon oh no I agree, but it's all weird as they can't say too much now as it's early, but I know Phil said some IPs future will be console/PC/mobile, while major ones on the PS will remain and continue to release, he specifically called out saying to Sony fans, name dropping is the big part as it was directed at the dedicated gamers on PlayStation.
@Sakisa Yeah, and countless people died in the war for our freedoms. Doesn't mean to say the world should now become dystopic. I've not been living under a rock. I'm fully aware of the human condition when power starts to serve the increasingly few who are posturing morality.
@KayOL77 Oh come off it, this isn’t a dystopia and it isn’t about ‘posturing’. It’s about an abusive CEO who has affected lives and let a suicide happen under his watch finally being removed from power, golden parachute or not. People are just mad that CoD might not be on PlayStation in a few years without caring that this will probably have a positive impact on the people that actually make games at Activision-Blizzard.
@Sakisa you know it's welcomed considering their fans welcome it including Asmongold, a major Wow influencer.
@Sakisa nobody is saying Bobby Kotick shouldn't have been evicted from his position as corrupt CEO, but your assuming Microsoft is a perfect arbiter and is not also being ruled by a very few people who have eaten one of their own.
Are you going to defend the inevitable gamepass price hikes because of inflation while berating Sony for selling £70 games because of inflation too?
EDIT:. This is a human wide issue masquerading as relief that Kotick is pretty much out and 'just jealous playstation fans'. The wider implications are the issue here.
@Shepherd_Tallon I would believe Sony would make more games come the Playstation bit they would be stupid too shut out Nintendo its free money.
@KayOL77 I would rather pay an extra $5 a month for GP over my favorite brands and companies being abused internally like ***** lol.
Oof. This sort of thing happens, and it'll rebound. But hopefully this of all things will be a signal to the PS brass, that they actually need to start reacting to this, and that their status as "default console" is over. It's time to shift back to PS3/PS4 launch war footing. The PS4 monopoly is officially finished. They need to play the game instead of dictating the game now. Nothing quite gets the boardroom's attention like a 13% drop in trade value in a day, and nothing forces action faster.
Now more than ever it highlights why PS needs a face. Faceless, shapeless Playstation just doesn't work if they're not a default monopoly. Even Nintendo knew that. Get Shu out of the indie basement and get him back in front. He's a face that's respected that the brand could use right now.
@Shepherd_Tallon Exactly right! PS has been complacent since mid-PS4, and I've been waiting for a shakeup to force them back into competitiveness.
@Dweich02 Of course you would. If you remove all the nuance and simplify things like that you can pretty much get away with morally throwing cash at a huge megacorp while that same megacorp keeps amassing more power.
@KayOL77 I keep hearing about this price hike that has yet to come, and what-ifs and doom saying scenarios here. And even then, yes I’d rather pay a couple extra bucks for access to a lot of games NOT built on the back of human suffering.
You’re the one choosing to rely on extreme hypotheticals here.
I'll tell you what, if I'm being paranoid and it turns out I'm talking nonsense, GOOD! That's the best scenario, but you could maybe meet me halfway in the meantime by at least looking at human history and not just assuming all this power isn't going to be used against us.
@KayOL77 you forget that the game studios under XGS are treated fairly, managed well, inclusive, have creative freedom, no crunch allowed, have the time to work on games, and everyone gets paid equally and treated fairly with dignity and respect, that's something I'm okay with because they respect the people in said Megacorp... Remind me ... Where is the negative in this?
@Dweich02 They respect people in said megacorp. I'm sure there is a massive elephant sized contradiction in terms going on right there.
@KayOL77 I have a few friends who work in XGS under Phil Spencer, and they love their jobs as devs, I know for sure one works for 343i.
@Alduin True, true. I was a HUGE Sega guy back then, and loved the Dreamcast (still do, to this day), and when Sony (the upstart back then) basically forced them out of the console business, I wasn't very happy, either. Now Sony is on the other side of the table a bit.
However, I do still have concerns with Microsoft buying two ginormous once-3rd party publishers. Starting to feel like 10 years from now, it's going to be just Microsoft making consoles & games for mature gamers, and then we'll just have Nintendo and their quarky games for their own console, and Sony? Simply making boutique software-only like Nintendo or Sega? I could be exaggerating, I can only purely speculate, but such big moves by Microsoft feel like a monopoly, and they'll only be 2 consoles to choose from (MS & Nintendo) in a decade or so ...
@lolwhatno You are correct 😌
@Dweich02 Lol what? There are so many issues at 343. There was an entire report done on the developer with tons of complaints. It's why Infinite took so long and is so barebones compared to previous Halo games.
@Dweich02 Thats great. Things change. Power goes to fews head. We are witnessing this power increasing and have been blindsided into them being cosy and just one of us!
@mucc so barebones it was successful, said 343 friend told me most of those long blank years were the engine creation, the game was only worked on for a total of 3 years to date. And most of those complaints and articles were actually proven false information which is why you don't see them brought up at all anymore even after the release.
It just blows my mind there's so many Xbox fanboys on here saying it's a good thing MS "saved" Activision. Oh please, you'd be crying like babies if Sony did the same thing. You cry even more so when they do temporary exclusivity. You're fine with it because "muh Gamepass", when games start to suffer because they're all developed half baked and geared towards live service so they can make their money back in the back end you'll understand. Consolidation isn't good for any industry. Buying 2 massive publishers in 2 years because you can't even make great games yourself is a joke.
@Dweich02 Fair point. I'm expecting CoD to go exclusive, but, I won't be too surprised either if they leave it on PlayStation.
@Dweich02 Successful? It didn't even launch as the number one selling game of the month. Well my uncle works at 343 and everything in the article is true. You see how much of clown you sound like saying "my friend" says this and that?
@mucc I am in no way a fanboy, I'm a PC gamer first and like buying games on steam and having choice, and your little rant there is kinda cute and a bit cringe considering I just said MS doesn't give two ***** about console wars and buying consoles. But have it your way and lash out like someone in kindergarten, please go touch some grass and tell me you also grew up. <3
@mucc I actually would be fine with it if Sony somehow bought Activision-Blizzard. Anything to get Bobby out at this point and let that company be more than a CoD machine. And I’ve also yet to see this deluge of half baked live service games hit gamepass. More doom saying hypotheticals from Sony fanboys? Oh wow how novel.
@Dweich02 Lol I'm the child yet you're the one saying "my friend works at 343 and everything is sunshine and rainbows" when there was an entire report done on the developer and the issues with Infinite. It launched incomplete and doesn't have features many games before it launched with.
Thanks for the stock tip Sammy.
@Shepherd_Tallon everything will be fine in the end, people are freaking out and I'm seeing cringe comments out of anger and spite, I love PlayStation but it needs to evolve past console spaces as a whole, there is no console wars, Microsoft's biggest competition isn't Sony like everyone thinks, it's actually been stated it's the likes of Google, Amazon, Netflix Etc... Lol.
@mucc I never said it was sunshine and rainbows, he did say there was some internal issues due to the engine and how it works, but overall things were not near as bad as they were made out to be in articles (which if you believe like to fluff it up for clout)
@NEStalgia you say Sony has been complacent this last few years? They have had a massively successful console launch(even with a pandemic and shortages) with in my opinion a great first year of games. We have 3 tent pole games coming this year, as well as some great 3rd party ones. They have 25 games in development, with nearly half being new ip(so could be anything). And they are going to be launching a cutting edge vr set up and make AAA games for it! If that's complacent, god knows what you'd call Nintendo the last few years with their repackaged wii and wii u games.
@Sakisa Lol so you've yet to see B4B, Outriders, Rainbow Six Extraction?, and many more to come. Most of the big games that come to GP day one are live service already. And it will come eventually. Do you think companies are going to give up $45 and not make their money back in some way? Spencer literally said that now games are going to be made to make money from the back end rather than the initial sale, what do you think that means for development? Either way what makes you think MS is going to make them any more than a CoD machine? They've done nothing but spend money. Just look at how empty this year is for Xbox again. It doesn't matter who is buying out who, consolidation is terrible and buying out the competition to gatekeep games and make your platform look better is completely anti consumer. The worst part is they're not even using money gained from the gaming industry to do this.
@Dweich02 I think they'll make consoles for as long as we want them, especially if they produce unique and accessibly VR hardware, but you're not wrong - They need to figure out this new world we live in.
Who knows? Maybe they already have. We'll see what they show us in the next few months. I love anime, and if they give me anime with my PSN sub that would have more value to me than CoD or Diablo.
@mucc oh, I guess those games do exist but they ain’t what I play or care about. Started Nobody Saves The World though and along with Yakuza 5 and Art of Rally I’ve been having a good time with quality games.
Gamepass is a lot more than what people here like to paint it as. As for Activision Blizzard everything I’ve been led to believe with how MS actually works with their teams leads me to believe that yes, they won’t just be constrained to CoD. Maybe I’ll be wrong since I have no more to go on than you theory crafters for how boogeyman MS is going to destroy the industry when Sony will bounce back and be fine and Nintendo won’t be affected at all.
@mucc Yeah. Coop campaign was a staple in all past halos. At least they can say the microtransaction store is absolutely perfect. And they'd be right on the money.
@KayOL77 Ha, that's pretty deep mate!
Nobody owns the afterlife although maybe MS will try and buy it.
😉
@Sakisa gamepass does not make game development cheaper. Somebody has to pay the bill or the games have to get cheaper. The other problems: the "game pass" provider curates the list of games which are available on the service, thus the consumer has less choice (assuming that the consumer has only the money to subscribe or buy but not both); the games just have to be good enough to keep people subscribed (there are no incentives to create the "greatest game of all times").
@gaston not really less choice for gamepass considering even if a game leaves that service it's still for sale on the store, it's not like it's ever gone gone, just from the sub model for 3rd party. They rotate 3rd parties often to shed light on others that need it, it's pretty normal.
@Sakisa If I remember right Sony was worth like 70bn in cash reserve while Microsoft was about 2000bn. Sounds like a legit competition to me with Microsoft buying companies up left and right to boot. If you can't see that as a farce...well...you do you mate.
@gaston Its a huge new type of abuse cycle in the making. The full third party games that were successful(i.e. downloaded quite a lot) also sold really well on playstation. So Microsoft would pay the Devs money to put the game on gamepass, word would spread. And revenue would come in from sales on other platforms because of word of mouth. Microsoft are looking to stop that happening because the dynamic was still making Sony more of the money. So they are needing to buy entire publishers just so the new games don't come to rival platforms at all. Not just cutting Sony and Nintendo out, but removing all that additional revenue Devs would have got. This is nothing but the biggest in your face power grab in current times regarding our favourite hobby.
@Shepherd_Tallon trust me I want gaming to work for everyone, but as I said PlayStation has been stuck in the past with predatory price hiking and anti consumer approaches for last gen games that are next gen by forcing to pay for the upgrades, where I like the XB approach to free upgrade because of Smart Delivery.
@Dweich02 "Less choice" because never will all games be on the service in contrast to a free market where the consumer can chose between all offers. The provider will limit the choice "for" You..
@gaston less choice? Not really, I’ve found plenty of games I love on the service that are still there, and if I want to own them I can buy at a discount which I have done. If I’m interested in a game not on gamepass? Wow, I do the classic move of buying it. Gamepass isn’t this binary monolith that locks you into only engaging with it, it supplements my game library and has honestly saved me money. And the person paying the bills is Microsoft who I think can afford it. It’s called being a loss leader.
@KayOL77 Sony can’t compete from a money angle but they have their own gaming teams and IPs that do and still will draw massive business. They’ll be fine.
@gaston @gaston I mean that's their choice and platform, it's not a democracy, they have rules for what is being used and set the terms, and a user has to willingly agree to those terms in the first place. If you have used game pass you would realize that there is now so many games releasing on it, still available, EA play choices, and extra content that it's getting overwhelming game wise.
@Alduin Sony didn’t play dirty. Microsoft had this planned no matter what Sony had done. They do what they have always done they buy everything up no matter the costs because they have unlimited money. Sony can never match this kind of business strategy. It’s not called good business it’s called bullying your way to the top. They can’t beat Sony on the quality of games. So they buy the whole industry. Just like they did with Windows. Sony is the new Apple. They will never be able to counter this. The only hope is that Microsoft will screw up again just like with Windows. By killing any innovations and force gamers to use their ecosystem. Because they will see any kind of innovation as a threat to their business model. My hope is that Sony just like Apple will go their own way and hopefully just like Apple they will come out on top in 20-30 years from now. Sony can’t afford to buy EA, Take-Two or Ubisoft. So they will be bought by Microsoft. Hopefully Sony stays firm and concentrates on what makes them great and that is building strong IPs and use the creativity of independent smaller studios to keep developing awesome games. Let Microsoft have the rest. Like all monopolists in the end they fail.
I am going to buy another PS5 just to help out SONY And that is no joke!
@BadPlayerOne I literally posted saying that Sony isn't Microsoft's competition anymore, it hasn't been for a few years, they are going after bigger companies like Google, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Facebook, and the like, and this is a step to combating those companies. Sony is Sony and Nintendo is Nintendo.
@Sakisa MIcrosoft couldn't be a loss leader if you set fire to half of their cash reserve. Even putting the word 'loss' in the same paragraph as the word 'microsoft' is a deep insult.
@Carl-G I think I'm gonna get 2x Ragnaroks. Yes, I'm going to support the company I like. I'm not going to be on my deathbed wishing I had just jumped to Xbox 😂
@Dweich02 games can only become effectively cheaper via a service like game pass if more people are subscribed than there were people who would have bought individual games. If the player base does not grow and if the games become effectively cheaper i.e. the total number of players pays less in total for games that would mean less games are developed or the development cost is reduced (which presumably means lower quality or shorter games).
@Dweich02 We know Sony isn't Microsoft's competition anymore but I'm not seeing these megacorps trying to tear each other apart. The target is over Sony's head, and those other megacorps could help rebalance the potentials and win a load of favour. Bit will they? I don't see it.
@gaston Exactly. Nobody has said what a dev gets per download, or if money is held back till a user plays for an hour...or gets a particular achievement(proving interest). I do know that a recent poll showed that even Xbox exclusives user engagement is down. (In terms of relative achievements attained).
Wonder If Sony will be rethinking when it comes to gamepass on PlayStation...
@Col_McCafferty Sometimes I think the afterlife and the survival of self, those you love and those values you cherish can't come quick enough. Safe from all those who just 'hate' and want to control. Who detest humanity at large and abhor our free will.
@teknium_ The problem would then be Microsoft gatekeeping the user paying a specific way. Gamepass would need to take pretty much over the entire system. Sony wouldnt get 30% of the sale. Microsoft:. The parasite that keeps giving 😂
@Alduin MS have and still are doing timed exclusives, Stalker is a timed exclusive for instance. MS were heavy with it last gen as well.
@Sakisa at the moment gamepass is great value because: it has plenty of old games which already sold enough via the traditional model; people not subscribed to the service pay the bigger chunk of the bill for the "few" subscribers; the service in the current phase may operate at a loss. The total amount of money available for game development is not magically increased by a service like gamepass. At some point You will get what You pay.
@GADG3Tx87 I go on PureXbox because i have a Series S but i stop reading the comments now because they're just a bunch of fanboys and are almost PC Master Race levels when it comes to Xbox, like sure this site and Nintendo Life have its fanboys but PureXbox is far by the worst,
@Alduin
It's business but it is still anti-competitive and unethical. If the DoJ looks into it then it may even turn out to be illegal. There is a 20-25% chance that this deal will be blocked because the industry is moving towards a monopoly. There are already rumblings that it will lead to an anti-trust investigation. Even Activision expect it and asked for a $3 Billion fee in case the deal is blocked.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/18/microsofts-69b-activision-blizzard-deal-sets-stage-for-antitrust-soap-opera/
The industry is moving towards a monopoly where gamers will be exploited by Microsoft once Sony loses most of the gaming franchises or gets pushed out of the industry. Xbox fans are only happy because their corporate overlord is doing it and they see it as some kind of personal victory. Sad to see people cheering a greedy, money-hatting, and monopolizing corporation. I would like to see these people gloat a few years down the road when they will be stuck in the Xbox ecosystem, paying through their noses for dumbed-down MTX/NFT infested games, and have no other options to switch to.
@OneWingedAngel acti/blizz was up for sale and MS stepped in with the cash though right and I'm sure I read that MS weren't the first in line when it came to buying them, unethical it maybe but business is business.
I love how the comments of these articles are people saying "Sony needs to buy Ubisoft, or EA etc." They can't because they don't have the capital MS has. Sony will respond to this in a year or so with another small support team purchase or not with anything at all. They won't change what there doing until fans stop buying there consoles. I also believe this news was timed by MS to overshadow the announcement of whatever Project Spartacus is and to point out how its (probably) still not going to offer what GamePass does.
@teknium_
Business is business does not mean anything goes. Business needs to be conducted within legal boundaries. All businesses have the right to operate fairly and no business has the right to push any other business out of the industry by using money, business practices, or influence. Stealing the biggest moneymaker from the rival corporation by throwing money is not business; it is desperate, cheap, and underhanded. Business would have been if Xbox created better gaming IP and franchises than Sony and beat them fair and square.
I genuinely hope this spurs greater innovation with Sony studio developers. Tired of seeing the exact same game mechanics reused and unchanged from naughty dog and others.
The shameful remake, remaster, directors cut cash grabs. The bs about generations. The all major studios still waiting to release cross Gen copy and pastes.
The killer here is that all of those people waiting and still vying to get a new console now have more reason to consider Xbox or pc. Sony put all of their eggs in one very narrow basket. Refusing to listen to fans and instead bleeding dollars from them like Rockstar.
Hopefully this spurs change, because a half baked subscription service with pay tiers and anime won't cut it.
I've said it before game pass is not xbox exclusive it's on pc and it will eventually come to the ps5.
Microsoft is not going to avoid the 100 million or so potential customers on PlayStation.
They just spent a ridiculous amount of money now they need to sell sell sell to make that money back and they ain't going to do with the least popular console currently available to buy after PlayStation and switch.
@KundaliniRising333
Sony has consistently delivered some of the highest-rated and most celebrated games in the industry with several GOTY year contenders. They consistently give away over $1,000 worth of games on PS Plus each year. They put up games on sale more than any rival company and people can get 3 to 4 games for $60 during sales. Their consoles are always cutting edge and feature the latest technologies. They give their developers creative freedom and they create what they want. What more can a gamer want?
@Alduin Where do you draw the line though? At what point do you draw the line and say this is no longer "just business"? When there are literal anti-trust laws in place to regulate this sort of behavior. I don't know, maybe this hasn't crossed that line yet but it's getting dangerously close. An acquisition like this isn't something to be celebrated or defended in my opinion. It stifles the competition. And we should want to stoke competition, not stifle it
Damn I’d love to hear what Jim Ryan and co are saying about this in Sonys board room!
Edit - the takeover I mean not the share price loss…
@AdamNovice Days? More like this whole gen. Covid screw up everything and then you have Microsoft buying every studio left and right..
@Dodoo
**Jim Ryan laughing gif **
I’m joking of course in case some keyboard warriors come at me haha
One of the cool gifs though 😅
Sony could bolster those stocks with a knack 3 announcement, or gravity rush 3 but we need to be realistic here.
@Serialsid Complacency doesn't mean not launching successful new hardware on the back of successful old hardware or launching successful blockbuster sequels to previous successful blockbuster games at ever higher prices. That's more or less the definition of complacency. Of course they were going to launch new hardware, that's their core business. Of course it was going to be well designed because that's their core industry. And of course it was going to launch well because it launched on the back of a generation they were a virtual monopoly. The "tentpole" releases, the launch games, etc, that's stuff that was set into motion 4+ years ago by prior management. Modern games take a long time to make, and we're still bearing out the legacy of Kaz, House, and Layden. We see new management mostly greenlighting sequels, Hollywood style. The big media mantra of "if it's selling, keep selling it until it doesn't." I'm not putting too much thought into those "25 games", after how frequently they love providing unrealistic release dates for things for marketing purposes and just keep changing the target. I'm sure those 25 games exist, but I'm doubtful all 25 will be purchasable before we all have PS6's. Meanwhile MS is going to be amping up it's release calendar every year.
But what we do see is complacent and stagnated business in the face of a changing marketplace. They've scaled back their risk taking and diversity to only the biggest most sure-fire blockbusters, and relying too heavily on large revenues from 3rd party big hitters, such as CoD, now coming back to bite them. They're doubling down on maximizing margin on each SKU, obsessed with unit sales, and changing nothing other than inflation-adjusted price increases. Meanwhile, new business models, new value offerings, new paradigms of how content is accessed have arrived, and Sony, instead of using their position as leader to jump in front of that and leverage it from a position of dominance, has been content to ignore it hoping it'll go away. Same as they did with MP3, Napster, and Netflix in their music and film business. Eventually they had to adapt in those businesses, but they were dragged kicking and screaming and lashing out at everyone and anyone for years while their numbers sank off a cliff until they finally came around to the new models, and surprise, made money from it.
They really have no choice in the face of a 13% stock tumble to be kicked out of that complacence and start taking risks and being competitive again. It's not just theorized consumer opinion they need to worry about addressing in the future, it's current investor concern they have to address, which frightens them far more than customers do. They were working on some new subscription service already, and this might be the just the incentive they needed to use that as a launch pad for a bigger shakeup of how they do business rather than trying to use it as a status quo, minimum effort service.
@KundaliniRising333 really summarized well in #166 the kind of complacency Sony has been into, and can no longer afford with what this shakeup represents. It doesn't mean PS is doomed, by any stretch, but it means if they don't actually proactively change how they're doing things, they'll be in for a lot of avoidable pain. Nobody's suggesting PS on going bankrupt, but it'll feel a lot more like the PS3 than the PS4, when the goal should be the PS2.
Perfect time to buy some share as this will sure recover. Sony is still a MASSIVE company as well.
@OneWingedAngel Absolutely. They will have to inhabit the same living conditions and curtailment of gaming freedoms like the rest of us. I don't know what can be done about that level of short sightedness.
@OneWingedAngel Microsoft have never been known to make quality products. They just buy there way into any endeavour that's been created by creative, competent people. They just want to control that which everyone else creates.
Ms just lowered even more their quality of interesting portfolio to me.
Much more a loss obsidian and inxile, was looking forward to starfield too.
But this is nothing for me, just hope doesn't affect Sony much, they have plenty of much much more creative, interesting, diverse quality games portfolio.
And can add a couple more maybe to compensate, even then, just pump out quality more and more.
It'll be fine if not too many casuals follow just the mob.
Wow, I think some people may be getting a little over worked here, Human rights, mass murder and global domination... This is computer games we are talking about. There are hundreds of new games being created right now, all over the world by 100's of companies, You may not be able to play a curtain game on a curtain piece of electrical equipment as you had hoped but come on, these are not crimes against humanity we are talking here.
I still find it strange that people are being loyal to companies and not games. I go with whoever makes the games I like and at the mo it's Sony. If that changes i'll get whoever else's console.
@NEStalgia you see a company sitting on its laurels, I don't. I see a company that's delivered a true next gen machine, that developed a brilliant controller(xbox was very complacent here) to give us a better gaming experience. That yes is going to continue making sequels to extremely popular titles, and make the type of games that made the ps4 the success it was. To not do that would be stupid. They deliver games that the others don't.
But they have already shown they trying new things, making TV and movies from their best games. Buying mobile studios and moving into the mobile market. Buying a pc porting company to expand their reach. They've stated they want to deliver more games this gen than in any other, expanding internal studios and buying more to do this. They have new ip's coming that may be completely different from the norm, we'll have to wait and see. But neither of us know what has been green lit.
Designing and delivering a cutting edge VR system when the market is so small and niche is a massive gamble. One that xbox don't want to risk.
I personally hope the news yesterday doesn't change their plans. Launch the new subscription service they have planned and have confidence in the titles they have in development. They won't be able to match MS for quantity and value(MS are in this for the long haul, they can afford to lose millions now for future gain) so they should stick to what they do best, quality! Panicking and trying to match Xbox, making big changes to their business model would probably be what MS are hoping they will do.
Sony has Naughty dog, if this means that this will force them to setup more studios with a similar quality, then I say buy MS, buy away! Force Sony to create more independent games, because us playstation'ers will love that, so thank you in advance
@GADG3Tx87
This comment was so dang well said. Bravo.
@viktorcode
PlayStation hass the most profitable store for Call of Duty because it is on PlayStation. When Microsoft pulls it from PlayStation, PlayStation would no longer be the most profitable place for the franchise. Megacorporations don't compete. They outspend competitors and squeeze them out. When consumers had the choice where to buy Call of Duty, they overwhelmingly chose PlayStation. Microsoft has the resources to remove that choice.
@Serialsid That's a catch 22 though. Sonys games are excessive in budget. It doesn't necessarily make them better, but it gives them insane production values which some equate to quality. Most of the market doesn't though (as seen by sales), but importantly those games don't really sell that tremendously on their own. Not in amounts that sustain the business. The reason they can overspend on budgets without worrying to much about profit margins on every expense is because it's only there to build up the platform to pull in that big cod, Fortnite, fifa money. They can spend that 200m on these games because they're the cod console and fifa console. The draw the crowd and the money, and that can go into some tech demo showcases like hfw. But those games like hfw sell only to a segment if their market and don't make returns that other publishers would be happy with for roi. It's fine because it greasees the wheels for that sweet cod money.
Take away the mainstem casual base over time, you take away the ability to excessively spend on those games.
Nintendo gets away with it because they make games that cost very little to make by industry standards. Even moderate returns are great roi for them.
They do need to change, now, but the best path may be dialing down the tech demos and bringing game budgets down from the stratosphere. Make more games that make more money without necessarily selling more of them.
I think Sony have to do some changes too, lose some short term profit. Offering new AAA titles for 80€ while competition offer them free for a subscription is not helping. Yes PS4 crashed XB1 but the race is much closer now
I am interested in seeing if the buyout will affect how Sony buys studios as they probably won't want to start buying studios left and right, but after this, I feel Playstations shareholders will start to pressure the company to start buying publishers. If that happens I think the most likely publisher to be bought by Sony is SquareEnix since they are Japanese and they've had a pretty close relationship with sony for a long time now.
This will be fine , as for a response , they don’t need too , just up the ps plus titles quality a little - announce what they have in pipeline for this year , we were due a state of play - I’m still a very happy gamer
Damn $20 Billion lost over a $70 billion acquisition, these are crazy times...
@NEStalgia calling HFW a tech demo is just laughable! Has more variety and depth than anything MS has made in the last few years. And I say this as a series x owner that's subscribed to GP for over 2 years. Halo infinite left me very underwhelmed, even my mate who lives and breaths xbox said it was 'meh' when he finished it. A 500 million dollar game! I do agree with some of your points, and yes not having COD may lose them quite a few casual gamers and the revenue they bring. Sony are going to have to be careful going forward, but I hope they find a happy medium. So they do the big quality AAA games that they are renowned for, but also smaller fun titles that they can churn out quicker.
They can't compete with MS and their almost unlimited funds, so they need to show what separates them. Be different. I'm hoping their new subscription service is the start of this.
What worries me as an owner of all 3 systems is that I don't think MS are finished purchasing publishers/studios! I expect ubisoft or EA to be next, they are going to dominate the market and gamers choice is going to get smaller and smaller. And I'm still not convinced that MS can bring quality and quantity(forza h5 being the exception) to GP long term either.
@Serialsid All of Sony's 1st party games are tech demos. Maybe the way way we colloquially call things tech demos to refer to short experiences with little gameplay or content, something like Astrobot, a tech demo changes that meaning. But there's no question those games are designed to showcase the tech as an example of the system. Well...ok, HFW is a PS4 game by design, it's not quite a tech demo of the PS5.... HzD was a tech demo for PS4 though. But the point is their games are ridiculously over budget for the realistic return on that. The kind of thing Square would declare a failure for the amount of money put in, because they need that revenue to please shareholders to be quite a bit more than costs. Sony doesn't need to worry about that. Even a break-even game is an asset to the platform to draw that big 3rd party money. They still couldn't put that excessive budget onto games if they weren't the dominant place for mainstream money. And if MS is rewriting the playbook on value for those big mainstream games, PS will quickly find that market eroding under them, and that has to affect their own game budgets and plans.
That having been said, I've felt Sony dumping all their money into these over-budget ego-stroking behemoths has been a disastrous strategy from the start. They only started doing that mid-PS4, and that's when things got less interesting. I like the games, and they have their loyal fans, but the market is fairly fixed for them, and too-big-to-fail video games isn't what made PS interesting to begin with. Layden was arguing that point when he unceremoniously "exited." And he's still arguing that point. I definitely agree with Layden on that one, even if he was part of the problem in starting it to begin with, and I think the new market changes dictate that PS will have no choice but to face that Layden was right and Ryan was wrong. The question is if they plan that ahead of time or wait for a financials hit before reacting too slow.
As you say, they shouldn't abandon the big blockbusters of course, but a balance of those mixed with more, smaller titles is much healthier overall. And, especially with MS pushing value like they are, not overcharging for those smaller titles like they did with the bungled Returnal pricing (which helped lead to horrible, horrible sales numbers) is important as well. If Ryan hadn't oustered Layden, that actually would have been their strategy already for the past 4 years. That's the real shame of it.
As for XB, yeah, I agree with you on Halo. I actually haven't finished it yet because I'm waiting for the coop, which helps cement my agreement with you..... 6+ years, a 1 year delay and it's still not actually a complete release. What I did play of it so far, it's very fun, the gunplay is polished to a high gloss, but the campaign certainly feels dated and hollow. If it were a game that didn't have a "AAAA" budget, I could be happy with it and say, this is how it should be, non-excessive budgets but very fun and polished games. But for the money spent on it, it's definitely not what it should be.
MS and purchases is a big of a slippery slope. When this story broke, we thought Activision was a sudden purchase of a stable and healthy, profitable company that otherwise wasn't for sale. We now know they were for sale and actively shopping for buyers, and only a few companies could afford them. My sentiment toward XB took a hit for a while with that. It was too big. A bridge too far. A line crossed. But since then we found out Activision actually was quietly up for sale and actively approaching potential buyers. That changes the mood a bit. It wasn't MS going on a buying spree to acquire megapublishers, it was a megapublisher that wanted out and seeking tech giants to arrange a buyout. Of those, MS is really the only realistic fit, so it's not as malevolent as it appeared. It could have been uglier without the buyout (closure, downsizing, selling off individual studios, or just languishing for years as irrelevant.) With that, I don't think MS is going to be approaching Ubi or EA to arrange a sale. The short term is safe. And they spent a LOT of money on Activision so they probably aren't interested in game industry buyouts of that scale for a few years at least. But it does tell us that if Ubi or EA or someone hits financial hardships and is looking for a sale, MS will probably be there with their wallets out, while Sony would probably be priced out of the sale.
The one thing that's clear is the super-big-budget megapublisher space is consolidating more and more, and Sony's not playing at the tech giant price points to buy in, huge as they are. Ironically just like Amazon out-Walmarted Walmart, MS is kind of out-Sonying Sony. Sony needs to find their identity again, and relying on a few super-huge blockbusters really isn't in their price sphere in this new consolidated industry. I don't want them to go full Nintendo and charge $60 for 10 hour 2D platformer. But Nintendo's budgeting is something they probably should return to emulating more closely.
Assuming they're sticking wholly to a traditional retail sales model and not going to try to pivot into the subscription services and compete more directly, that is.
Most people play Cod or Fifa games casual gamers and i guess they sell most the systems.
So people might want Xbox's as they might be Cod only consoles in the future but Ps5 has some heavy hitting games coming out.
Playstation might go back to the Ps3 era when everyone owned xbox360's and Ps3 gamers where nice and hardcore gamers and it was a nice era.
@NEStalgia sorry I can't have a conversation with someone who calls all of Sony's big games tech demos. Just can't take you seriously. If HZD is a tech demo then so is BOTW on switch or forza h5(looks amazing but shallow as hell, with lots and lots of shiny cars thrown at you). GOW sold 19.5 million and to many is a masterpiece, if you think that's a tech demo 🤷♂️.
At the end of the day, Sony should just carry on with what they are doing. Make brilliant AAA games and also spread into other types of games, which I believe they are doing right now.
Xbox are pushing value like they are because they have MS bank rolling it. They don't care about gamers, they care about subs. As was pointed out in the other article, xbox hasn't even generated 70 billion in 20 years! They are going to keep buying until they dominate the market. Then we'll really see a very different gaming future. As a GP subscriber I'm under no illusion that it's not always going to be like this. They are already showing their true colours with halo and FH5, yeah the games drop day one but the DLC, add ons and the many many mircotransations are going to cost you.
Anyway I think we're never going to agree so will leave it there. Be interesting to see how the future plays out. I just hope the hobby that I love is still recognisable in 10 years. Cheers.
@Serialsid Exclusives are supposed to be tech demos. Super Mario World was a tech demo. Sonic the Hedgehog was a tech demo. Crash was a tech demo. Halo was a tech demo. Jak2 was a tech demo. F-Zero was a tech demo. That's the whole point of platform owned exclusives! I'm not singling out Sony on that one, but their budgets are just unsustainable, other than when backed by that casual mass market of mainstream games. Again, Layden was saying the same back when he was there, so it's not anything revolutionary to anyone but Jim Ryan to say such things.
But I don't disagree that the value has a risk of not continuing as it is in the future. I'm not that naive, but I'm also not at the point of a knee-jerk reaction to assume it can't fund itself as-is, either. Prices will go up, that's a given, but whether the value remains I think we can't know yet. I don't see them loss-leading quite so hard yet. Activision....had problems. Yeah the buyout was 70bn, annual revenue was 8b, and an average 5b in expenses, but that begs the question how they could be losing so much money to expenses to begin with. A quarter of that revenue is all from King (Candy Crush), with very low expenses. Meaning they've been barely breaking even with their other games despite having the #1 game. That's not a lack of potential, that's mismanagement. Activision has been blowing money as badly as Sony, but without that third party money to recover it. They could produce more profits than they have been. Which is probably why they were for sale to begin with.
Halo absolutely does show the dark side of GP (or the total failure that is 343i, one or the other.) FH5 isn't a good indicator. Some have faulted the DLC and addons with GP, but the FH series has always had expensive add-ons, and has been vaguely unfriendly even before GP existed. FH5 actually offers the cheapest route to the total package that has existed for the series yet, with GP. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see that "pay extra for more" model be dominant with GP as a nouveau F2P scheme at all. Buy that particular series isn't a great indicator of GP going that route, because that series did that before GP existed, and GP did actually make it more friendly.
Time will indeed tell. I'm not super pessimistic about the MS model, because I can see a lot of ways that model could be quite profitable as-is. The traditional model's focus on margin per unit misses a lot of potential money on the table with frequent smaller purchases (I don't mean cosmetics). It curtails how many units individuals will by, how much of the brand they interact with, and thus how much additional content will be purchased. There's a lot of facets about the traditional model that don't hold up today, either. And I'm not worried about anti-consumer behavior from the current management at MS. I think they're really committed to making the industry grow as large and diverse as possible. I'm more worried about whatever management replaces them in 5, 10, 15 years. THAT will be a dark timeline, IMO.
4 months later and the stocks are lower than this article posted, don't see a recovery happening anytime soon.
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